At the beginning of the year, I had a chance to test several entry-level DSLRs side by side and review which ones were the best. Today, I’d like to circle back and rank some of these cameras for photographers who are trying to decide on a DSLR, either for yourself or as a gift; it’s that time of year, after all. Hopefully this list gives you a good idea of which camera will be right for you.

Now that Canon has entered the full-frame mirrorless world with their EOS R, it’s time to see how this new camera compares to Canon’s current generation of professional DSLRs – specifically, the Canon 5D Mark IV. Both the EOS R and the 5D IV share a number of similar specifications, but their differences are enough to target two relatively different groups of photographers. Here’s what you need to know.

Nikon just announced the D3500 DSLR, the most recent in their popular line of entry-level D3X00 cameras, with a starting price of just $499 with the 18-55mm AF-P kit lens. It has been two years since the prior model, the D3400, was released, and the new D3500 comes with a few noteworthy changes. Namely, the new camera has higher battery life than its predecessor (up from 1200 to 1550 shots), as well as a lighter and more ergonomic design.

One of the smallest and lightest Canon DSLRs is the Rebel SL2, announced in June of 2017 and retailing for $549, body only. The SL2 also goes by the names “EOS 200D” and “Kiss X9” outside the US market. Despite the camera’s small size, Canon packed a lot into the SL2, including a tilt-flip touchscreen, dual pixel autofocus, and the company’s newest 24 megapixel sensor. This detailed review covers everything you need to know about the SL2.

This is a detailed review of the Nikon D3400, the newest entry-level DSLR in the Nikon lineup (as of June 2018). The D3400 uses a top-of-the-line 24 megapixel DX sensor, which is capable of capturing very detailed and high quality photos. But it isn’t all perfect – the Nikon D3400 has noticeable compromises, especially in its handling and menu options. Is it still worth buying? Below, we’ll cover everything you need to know to make your decision.

This is an in-depth review of the Canon Rebel T7i (also known as the EOS 800D and the Kiss X9i), the newest in Canon’s long line of Rebel DSLRs. These cameras have been a staple of Canon’s system for years, starting with the original “EOS Digital Rebel” in 2003. The newest T7i improves upon its many predecessors by adding a faster frame rate, better autofocus, and Canon’s newest generation aps-c sensor. It retails for $750 body only and $800 with…

In this article, we gathered and compiled the available information on buffer capacity of all current Nikon DSLRs. The below table outlines many of the current and discontinued Nikon DSLR models, along with such information as sensor resolution, continuous shooting speed (fps) and RAW / JPEG buffer capacities. While most of the RAW buffer information is included, we decided not to bother with smaller JPEG sizes, since most cameras presented below can accommodate 100 or more of smaller JPEG images…

Tomorrow is the 100th year anniversary of Nikon. While we have been patiently waiting for the company to announce something new for this big date, it looks like we will only be seeing a teaser in the form of the Nikon D850 “development announcement”. Unfortunately, aside from the teaser video (see below) that does not reveal much aside from the ability to shoot 4K video and 8K timelapses, no additional information is provided as part of this development announcement, which…

In this article, we will go over what exposure compensation is on a digital camera and how you can take advantage of it to make adjustments to your exposure when shooting in camera modes such as aperture priority, shutter priority, program mode and other scene modes of your camera. Every modern camera today has a built-in capability to adjust exposure settings in order to make it easier to properly expose images. In simple terms, the idea is to be able…

While I wait until quarterly data is available from CIPA to do full camera market updates on my photography blog, I thought Photography Life readers may like to have a quick look at how 2017 is shaping up for the digital camera market. The charts in this short article are based on April YTD 2017 CIPA statistics. I’ve included YTD actuals for 2017 as well as my market estimates for 2017. These estimates were calculated after examining some basic trends that the camera market…

There have been some interesting shifts in the relative importance of various segments of the camera market over the past number of years. I thought readers may like to view a few charts based on CIPA data as they relate to the relative importance of various regional camera markets.

As a brief follow up to Nasim’s excellent post, Sony “Overtakes” Nikon in Full-Frame Sales, this brief article shares some recent CIPA statistics regarding the shipment of mirrorless interchangeable lens cameras. Depending on how a person interprets this data will determine whether the mirrorless interchangeable camera market is ‘growing’.

For the past few years now, the digital photography camera market has been on a steady decline. Some people blame it on smartphones taking over the big chunk of camera sales, while others have related other factors to the decreased camera sales. While we have written a number of articles on this topic, I personally don’t think that there is only one factor that can be singled out as the root cause – I believe there are a number of…

One of the key features that many high-end Nikon DSLRs hide in their menu system, is the ability to instantly zoom into an image at 100% zoom, or 1:1 magnification. This “one-click zoom feature” can be very useful when reviewing images on the rear LCD, as it saves you from having to press the zoom and the navigation buttons so many times in order to see whether the subject you are capturing is sharp or not – you simply press…

As smartphones are getting better at capturing images year after year, one might be wondering when, if at all, we will see smartphones directly competing with larger cameras. Are we at the point, or perhaps might be soon approaching one, where it won’t make any sense to buy a high-end DSLR or a mirrorless camera to capture professional-looking images? Now that smartphones like the iPhone 7 Plus are shipping with dual lenses (one standard wide-angle lens and one telephoto lens…

Summer is usually the season for air shows and that means yet another reason and opportunity to go out shooting. I had intended to visit the Farnborough Air Show this year but unfortunately an exhaust muffler decided to divorce itself from the underside of my car and reconciling the two became my whole day instead. Undoubtedly there’ll be other air shows for me to visit this summer but for now these images here are from previous shows, including the one at…

I recently spent some time looking at CIPA data and wrote a few articles on my blog pertaining to these camera industry statistics. I thought Photography Life readers may find some of the data of interest. What follows are a few thoughts about the camera market, based on my interpretation of CIPA data. It should be noted that data is simply data and two people can look at the same information and arrive at differing interpretations. For folks who find the…

With the long-awaited and much-anticipated Nikon D500 out, one might be wondering how it compares to its predecessor, the Nikon D300S. Since there has been such a huge delay between the releases, it is a given that the D500 is a much better and more advanced camera. However, how much do these cameras differ really when we look at their specifications and what has changed in the last 7 years? Let’s take a look and see in this Nikon D500…

One of the biggest complaints we hear about from photographers today is lack of innovation by DSLR manufacturers. Given how far mirrorless cameras have gotten in the last few years with the electronic viewfinder (EVF) technology, it is a given that DSLRs are looking archaic in comparison, particularly when it comes to intelligent information overlays, manual focusing, focus peaking, EVF image playback and other important advancements that make mirrorless cameras not just joyful to use, but also very helpful in…

It has been interesting to observe the debate about “DSLR vs mirrorless” unfold over the past while. I would agree with Bob Vishneski’s point in his recent article that if one is comparing full frame cameras, the weight difference alone between traditional DSLRs and mirrorless is negligible. And, that slight difference in weight is really not worth the trouble and cost to change over to mirrorless for the vast majority of photographers who use full frame gear.